CELA aims at improving the quality of research and technology transfer of Latin American universities, strengthen the role of those higher education institutions (HEI) in the sustainable socioeconomic development and foster sustainable research and technology transfer cooperation between higher education institutions in Latin America and the EU.
The CELA project focuses on the thematic sector of Climate Change because mitigation and adaption to climate change are of vital importance for the sustainable socioeconomic development in Latin America as well as in Europe.
CELA will foster EU-LA applied research and technology transfer in the climate change sector. CELA will lead to with the set-up of an infra-structure called Technology Transfer Centres which will be making better use of the science and technology knowledge existing in the participating regions and in setting-up networks to intensify joint EU-LA applied research in the field, in support of socio-economic development. Since lack of expertise and access to knowledge is a major impediment to tackle the challenges of climate change, the project entails the development of highly-qualified research staff and research institutes, which will play a very important role in training people and providing expert advice (research and technology transfer) and thereby have a positive, long –term impact on the socioeconomic development in the participant LA countries and beyond.
The specific objectives of the CELA project are:
- To increase the capacity and to improve the quality of research within the scientific and technology community in LA and EU
- To develop and establish a market-oriented research framework to better capitalise and disseminate research on climate change
- To strengthen the link of EU and LA research communities with the regional market, business and legislation (policy) in the field of climate change
- To develop and establish a market-oriented EU- LA network of Climate Change Technology Transfer Centres
The project will ultimately greatly assist efforts in LA to provide a market-oriented research and technology transfer approach, complemented by establishing specific recommendations for the different regions of how to excel within their region and beyond. In doing so, the project will address a set of issues seen in the Millennium Development Goals such as fighting poverty and pursuing environmental sustainability.
The final beneficiaries of the CELA project are described as follows:
- 180 research, teaching, administrative and management staff will benefit either from new research, cooperation or networking opportunities kicked-off by CELA or from the provision of concepts and recommendations developed within CELA which supports them in continuously enhancing the teaching and research and technology transfer activities. Links with other EU programmes such as FP7 and Erasmus-Mundus will be pursued.
- At least 180 EU/LA enterprises and other private or public institutions in the Climate Change sector will benefit from the local availabilty of expertise and research partners.
Finally, the general EU/LA population will benefit economically and environmentally from the increased capability of key actors for tackling the challenges of climate change.
